Vanilla poitaei Rchb. f. 1877 SUBGENUS Xanata SECTION Tethya

Photo courtesy of Mark Nir and Orchidaceae Antillannae

LATER to

Common Name The Poiteau Vanilla [an old name for the island of Hispanola]

Flower Size 5" [12 cm]

Found in the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Hispanola and Cuba as a scrambling, vinelike, giant sized, hot growing terrestro- epiphyte at elevations of 150 to 420 meters with scandent, occasionally branching, smooth, stems with 8" internodes and carrying persistent, fleshy, somewhat rigid, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, flat but with reflexed apices, shorter than the internodes leaves that blooms in the later spring and summer on an axillary, fractifex, racemose inflorescence with successively opening, ephemeral flowers.

"This is a “leafless” American Vanilla, in which small, hooked leaves are present at each node. It has a large flabellate lip with a recurved apical lobe and an irregular, crisped and maroon margin. The identity of this species has been recently solved by Ackerman (1995) who studied all the leafless Caribbean vanillas." Soto Arenas & Cribb 2010

Synonyms Vanilla correllii Sauleda & R.M.Adams 1981; Vanilla eggersii Rolfe 1896

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909 as V eggersii; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909; Flora Brasilica Vol XII II Hoehne as V eggersii 1945 drawing ok; AOS Bulletin Vol 15 # 12 1946 as V eggersii; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 7 385 - 448 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1975 as V eggersii; An Orchid Flora of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands Ackerman 1995 drawing fide; Lankesteriana 9(3): 355-398 Soto Arenas & Cribb 2010

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------